Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [32]
Finally, though, he had followed every lead he could think of, and had no more information to access. Although there was nothing more for him to do than wait for Thelia to waken, Data was not frustrated at his forced inaction. He recalled how Tasha had found the inability to take action the most frustrating of all situations … and then realized that that was not the reason Tasha Yar had come into his mind.
It was the feel of a woman asleep in his arms that reminded Data of Tasha once again. She was the last to have rested there. It had felt good to have her trust, her friendship, to know he had given her pleasureand it had taken many months after her unexpected denial for them to become close friends again. He was unutterably glad that they had done so before her death, and that when they were assigned together on the mission to Treva they had overcome the last lingering obstacles and resumed, even deepened, their friendship.
If that mission had not reunited Tasha with Darryl Adin, her first love, it might have led to-Data broke away from such thoughts. There were times when he was glad to be a machine, with heuss 88 ristic algorithms he could control instead of a subconscious he could not. Fond memories, on the other hand, were something he shared gratefully with his human friends. Not just factual memory, which for him was far more accurate than for any organic being-no, it was what he had come to describe as the “flavor” of the moment that he had learned to savor. The metaphor he chose to describe it came from a conversation he had once had with Tasha, when she had described how associating certain foods with pleasant occasions made her appreciate them more when she encountered them again. That was when Data discovered that, without being consciously aware of it, he did the same thing with all sensory experiences: they were neutral to him until associated with specific company or occasions, whereupon they were forever after pleasant or unpleasant.
So, although he had not known Thelia long enough to do more than admire her spirit and determination, and her courage in overcoming superstitious fears, he felt pleasure in holding her because of his memories and associations. As the hours passed, though, and Data reviewed what had happened thus far on his unplanned Quest, he recalled that the Elysian “gods” had provided images not only of his crewmates, which they could easily take from the Enterprise in orbit, but of Tasha. He had not spoken of her to Thelia; could they have accessed his memory banks without his knowledge? To Data, that was a most alarming thought.
On the other hand, the Enterprise logs contained gigabytes of information on all present and former crew, including a transcript of Data’s recent trial at Starbase 173. The holographic image of Tasha was 89 back in his quarters. The “gods” could have gotten the information for their series of images without invading Data’s memory banks. He assumed that either they could not invade his mental privacy, or that they conformed to an ethical system that would forbid it.
Wherever the truth lay, he realized that for the moment there was nothing he could do but proceed with the Quest, and hope that in the end he would receive answers to his questions.
When Thelia stirred awake, she smiled shyly at Data. “Thank you,” she said. “I would have been most uncomfortable without your help. As it is, I rested well, and am ready to go on.”
The trail continued steep and difficult for more than two hours, but at the end of that time the temperature finally began to rise. Thelia repacked her cloak.
As the temperature continued to climb, her quilted vest joined it in her pack, and she stopped often to drink from the water bag. “It must be a further test of your endurance,” Data said. “We have been winding around the outer edge of the mountain; if the heat were geothermal, it would be higher at the core.”
“I do not care where it comes from,” Thelia said, wiping the sweat from her brow, “so long as it does not stop us.”
“An increase of many more degrees will not harm me,” said